RECLAIM YOUR CUNT, RECLAIM OUR CUNT.

‘La mar es posa bona si veu el cony d’una dona’, is a Catalan belief in the vagina, translated as ‘the sea calms down if it sees a woman’s cunt’.

The act of lifting the skirt has been translated across cultures and geographies. It was known as Anasyrma or Ana-Suromai in ancient Greece, Anlu in Kom communities and many more. A flash of the cunt has been known to calm forces of nature; in Madras India women were known to subdue storms by exposing their genitalia. In other folklore women could drive away devils, evil spirits and even invading warriors. Raising the Skirt is working to evoke these narratives by using a deep placed wild and somatic drive to reclaim the cunt as a powerful tool in assertion.

Nicola Hunter (formerly Canavan) created ‘Raising the Skirt’ from a place of extensive research into the historical links between the vulva and power as well as from a deeply personal place of overcoming judgement that was placed her own body. The historic and the personal were weaved together with the threads of her performance practice which questions notions of beauty and the status of women both socially and culturally while confronting how the female body is translated across mass media. From these interlinked places she set out to create a space that was rooted in hidden traditions, forged in personal experiences and connected in an ever-expanding community.

‘Raising the Skirts’ began as a three-day workshop funded by Live Arts Development Agency and was co-facilitated by Dawn Felicia Knox, each workshop is a deeply intimate space and created for an authentic experience and is focused on observing, learning about and reclaiming the cunt; the cunt is a word used to describe the internal organs (inclusive of the uterus and vagina), the clitoris and the vulva. The internal and external genitals are repeatedly mis-labelled by the medical profession, media and in PSHE as the vagina.

The workshops look specifically at the relationship cis women have had with their genitals from birth which includes a refresher in Personal Sexual Health Education (PSHE). The workshop has been developed through research into the menstrual cycle, internal reproductive system, vaginal health, sexual development, external genitals, the socio-cultural history of the the vulva, the history of raising the skirt and the reclaiming of the cunt. We aim to come together as a group to talk about how our these experiences effect the connection we have with our own bodies and our sexual and intimate relationships in adulthood.

Dawn Felicia Knox has documented the workshops to date, she has bore witness to the personal journeys of each woman. From the personal space of inward looking, the women turned outward and enacted the ritual of Raising the Skirt in a series of performances to camera – they evoked the ancestral warriors, calming the sea and stilling the skies. The images exhibited here are from that first workshop.

‘Raising the Skirt' is more than images, it is a project raising questions, it is a resource tool and a community, which aims to represent women from all communities and origins, those strong and passionate women all fighting for the same cause. I want my Anasyrma Army to grow and for us all to have peace within our bodies but fire in our hearts.” Nicola Hunter

Please also note that the women you see in these photographs are not models, they are participants who went through an application process to take part, and without their energy and commitment this project would never have been as strong as it is. My hopes for 'Raising the Skirt' is to enrichen it with the presence of women from all communities and origins, with strong and passionate women all fighting for the same cause, I want my Anasyrma Army to grow and for us all to have peace within our bodies but fire in our hearts.

The workshops at present focuses on biological function, menstruation and socio-cultural experiences of the vulva from birth so at the moment our work is designed for cis women with very specific lines of enquiry, however as individuals we celebrate people of all genders and are active in fighting for gender equality and supporting the voices of individuals with a spectrum of experiences, the project is in it's very early stages of development and we need time to invest in research, conversation and action. We want to be representative of all diverse cunts and to open up conversations about what the cunt means to people of all genders. The future for ‘Raising the Skirt’ is to be an inclusive space for dialogue and community.We are very excited to have created a platform for scope to address much more complex questions about gender but unfortunately due to our grass roots we are completely self funded and until we can invest the time to develop our own tool box, the structure of the workshops will remain the same for the short term.

If you have any information, text, memoirs, images or more that relate to this project or if you are interested in joining our next workshop please email Nicola and Dawn at raisingtheskirthub@gmail.com

SPECIAL THANKSI would like to thank all 'Raising the Skirt' participants across every event and for contributions, to each of those who have shared experiences and images of your body in hope that one day all generations of girls and women can begin their day with full agency.

Testimonials

"I am much more comfortable with my naked body as a positive and powerful thing, and I also see it as a mature woman’s body rather than something more adolescent. I’ve stopped myself and my boyfriend from using cutesy terms for parts of it now; it felt wrong to do so after I had used it in such a forceful way. I am much more excited to use it in performance, and I am also kinder to myself."

"The experience has had a profound influence on my body image by and large, helping me to accept my naked body for what it is; natural, organic, real. Ive gained a true sense of the word ‘beautiful’ in how I apply it to my own body and female self. I am free and wild at heart, and I’m now not afraid to express it! I have taken inspiration from Nicola’s approach to the participatory element of the project and feel the drive to develop my own participatory project as part of my artistic practice as a result. It has been a real success!"

"I feel like I have just made a very small start in my own feelings and attitude towards my own body. I feel very proud to have been a part of this experience and I think it will encourage me to continue with a different relationship with my body."

"It was so amazing to have a group of women come together for three days to create this thing, and to create bonds with each other. I feel like I carry a cushion of support with me now. It’s wonderful."

"I am finding it easier to respond to situations, to make real authentic noises in intimate situations, to say "slow down", to say "more please", to say "I am scared", to feel stuff. It is also becoming more and more obvious how beautiful we all are and how doubting that really goes against any sort logic (emotional, intuitive, rational). It seems easier to sift out the valuable and substantial from the fluff and distraction."

"I significantly more connected with the experience of owning and embodying my vagina, but most of all, I feel attracted and lured to its appearance and nature more and more by the day. I can appreciate its honesty, authenticity and history, and feel excited about our future together, as opposed to feeling like it was just an arousing orifice for my own and others pleasure. Its more than that now, and I would like to have the opportunity to delve deeper into its ‘being’ whilst sharing the experience with others."